House of Commons Hansard #331 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was workers.

Topics

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:10 p.m.

NDP

Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON

moved:

Motion No. 1

That Bill C-79 be amended by deleting Clause 7.

Motion No. 2

That Bill C-79 be amended by deleting Clause 8.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:10 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

seconded by the member for Repentigny, moved:

Motion No. 3

That Bill C-79 be amended by deleting Clause 9.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:10 p.m.

NDP

Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON

moved:

Motion No. 4

That Bill C-79 be amended by deleting Clause 11.

Motion No. 5

That Bill C-79 be amended by deleting Clause 12.

Motion No. 6

That Bill C-79 be amended by deleting Clause 19.

Motion No. 7

That Bill C-79 be amended by deleting Clause 50.

Mr. Speaker, I wish I were rising today with some hope that we would be having more of a fulsome debate. It is very unfortunate that the Liberals and Conservatives have decided to join forces in a very rarely used provision in this House in order to ram through Bill C-79, the CPTPP.

It is quite baffling to me because the amendments really focus around the ISDS. In the CPTPP, we have fully signed on to the investor-state dispute settlement which today we heard from the Prime Minister he is happy to see gone in the new USMCA deal we have with the United States. Not only do I find this baffling, but Canadians also find this baffling. Of course, we welcome the elimination of this provision with the U.S. and Mexico because we have been the most sued country in the world under this provision. It has not worked well for us. I believe there are members on the opposite side who are also not happy with this provision.

I focus on this because it speaks to the hypocrisy and inconsistency we are seeing in this House when we see this approach to trade. On one hand we are saying that ISDS is a bad provision and needs to be gone, which is quite welcomed from the Liberals but quite shocking as well because it was not the Liberals who wanted it gone in the new USMCA. It was the U.S., and more specifically President Trump, who wanted it gone. We see this flip-flopping with the Liberals. How is it they are standing today pushing through debate on a deal that includes this very provision? It is baffling to me.

Not only is that baffling, but so is what we have given up in terms of dairy. Despite all the promises in this House from the Liberal government that it would completely protect our dairy sector in the new deal, the USMCA, we now know that is completely false. The Liberals have not protected it. They have knocked down two key pillars of supply management. We know that when we come back to this deal with the U.S. in six years it will be at the top of the list, and the Liberals will be happy to give it up again. They have betrayed family farmers in my riding of Essex and family farmers across this country. Why are we now signing a deal where we will further damage family farms and auto workers?

Speaking of auto workers, what we were able to achieve in the USMCA for auto workers is good. It is positive. We prevented that 25% tariff, and that is most definitely something Canadian auto workers are pleased to see. However, right on the heels of that, we are signing onto an agreement that is going to hurt auto workers. This is incomprehensible. How is it that the Liberals say they are going to protect people and workers in our country and the very next second they do the exact opposite?

I am not sure Liberals understand what they are signing onto. From the very limited debate we have had in this House, I would say that is clear. We should be having 10 hours of debate but it is now down to four hours of debate on an agreement that is thousands of pages long and will cost 58,000 Canadian jobs. It is bizarre to me that even the Conservatives do not want to debate this fully. They certainly have been saying that everything in this House deserves full debate, but today we saw that is not the case and they are happy to partner with the Liberals. Canadians are left shaking their heads to see the difference between Liberals and Conservatives in this House today in the approach to trade.

On the ISDS question I asked the Prime Minister today, it was interesting to me how he glowingly spoke about their being able to remove it, how fantastic it is, and invoked Jerry Dias and Hassan Yussuff. Yet, when I spoke with Jerry Dias on the phone this morning, he was shaking his head and saying that it is a betrayal for the Liberals to sign the CPTPP. How is it that on one hand the Liberals are saying they are going to stand by auto and on the other hand they turn around and do the exact opposite?

The Liberals are making fools of Canadians by trying to have them believe that in some way they care about working people in Canada. The CPTPP is a betrayal to working people. It is a betrayal to family farms. It contains ISDS provisions, which the government has now had a second coming on and has finally decided is not a good provision, but not to worry, they are still going to put it into the agreement over there. That is okay. We should just not look too closely over there.

Again, I have to point to the Conservatives, because the Conservatives have been up reading, I would say, by all accounts, what I consider to be NDP viewpoints on trade on the USMCA in the last few days, as though Canadians believe that the Conservatives stand up for working people, as though Canadians believe that they protect farmer, when they in fact are the architects of the TPP.

There is absolutely no comprehensiveness or progressiveness around the TPP. If we speak with the lead negotiator of the TPP, we will find that the text is identical. What has happened is we have a suspension of 20 provisions and we have some tweaks, and we have actually lost some of the side letters. There is no change to the text of the TPP whatsoever. By putting a new name on it that suggests otherwise is simply false. It is misleading to Canadians.

Canadians are not buying it either. When we had the original TPP, 18,000 Canadians wrote to the Liberal government. All but two of the 18,000 people told the government not to sign the CPTPP, and yet, here we are. Once again, we have this full consultation where there is an impression that when Canadians express themselves to the government, they will be heard.

However, the government is falling down on that day after day in this House. The Liberals will consult, but they have already made up their minds on exactly what they are going to do. Whether we are talking about indigenous rights, workers' rights or family farms, that is what the Liberals are doing. No one is fooled by what is happening in this country right now.

I want to talk about the mandate letters that came out. The progressive elements were included initially in the mandate letter for the international trade minister at the time, the fresh mandate letter of 2015. It included all of these progressive trade elements, like a gender chapter, environmental rights, indigenous people, labour rights, all of these wonderful things that Canadians would really like to see as part of our deals. In the CPTPP, sadly, none of those things exist. Not one of those things ended up being in the actual agreement.

To include “progressive” in the title is a farce. There is no indigenous chapter or language. The words “climate change” are not even mentioned, and by the way they are not in the new U.S. deal either. The USMCA does not even mention the words “climate change”. There are no labour provisions in the CPTPP that will help working people.

There are regressive provisions. Now, we are going to be in competition with countries like Malaysia, where the wage is frightening to our Mexican partners in the new U.S.-Mexico deal. The wages are so low, the treatment is so low, and there are no labour standards and no environmental standards.

What happened to the government's gender lens it was going to apply to all of the work it does? It has completely evaporated. It does not exist in the CPTPP.

The promise that was made to people about the type of trade, the type of consultation and, quite frankly, what happened in the new trilateral deal that we have in the USMCA, did not happen at all in the CPTPP. None of those people were in the room. In fact, in a Montreal round when that particular deal was being negotiated under the NAFTA name, the minister and all of the officials were there meeting with stakeholders all weekend long, talking about the new deal we were going to have with the U.S. and Mexico, and they left those meetings without saying one word about the CPTPP. They flew away and signed the CPTPP.

Again, we have this incomprehensible mess of a trade agenda that the Liberals are presenting to Canadians, and we have Conservatives in this House who are happy to join hands and go down this path. I want working people in Canada to know, I want farmers in Canada to know, I want everyone who struggles to pay for their prescriptions to know, and I want everyone who cares about our environment to know that today, the Liberals, along with the help of the Conservatives, have turned their backs on them. They have exposed themselves for the free traders that they are, and there is nothing they will not sign and nothing they will not give up.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:20 p.m.

Liberal

Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS

Mr. Speaker, it is always interesting to have an opportunity to listen to the member. She always has lots of energy behind her speech. I appreciate that. It is very evident she has done her research.

I would like to bring her back to 2015. Her party was not in support of CETA. It is not in support of the CPTPP and is not in support of the USMCA. I remember back at election time when the leader at the time said he had not even read the deal, which was the TPP at the time, and said that the New Democrats were not in favour of it. He did not even know what was in it yet.

When she speaks about the 58,000 jobs lost, our government will work closely with that industry to support them with compensation. However, she is not talking about the hundreds and thousands of jobs that will be created through these deals. These deals are very important for Canadians not just today but this will lead to prosperity for the next 30 to 100 years.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:20 p.m.

NDP

Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON

Mr. Speaker, that comment was completely void of fact. The member talked about reading the agreement. Perhaps he should read it himself and understand what his own government, through Global Affairs Canada, is saying about the deal, because the job losses are acknowledged by Global Affairs.

There is very little increase to the GDP, some $4.2 billion in 22 years. Economists call that negligible. We trade that in one day. To say that over 22 years, to give up all these jobs, to jeopardize family farms is something he supports, the member should go back, read the agreement and understand what he signed on to. I can assure him that I have.

He mentioned CETA. Here we are a year on from signing CETA and we have lost exports to our CETA partners. They have increased imports. There is a flood of imports and our exports are lower now than when we signed a year ago.

His government can keep opening doors with bad trade deals all it wants, but the only thing that is happening through those doors is a flood into our country, which is costing us jobs. Our Canadian exporters are not seeing the benefit of trade for multiple reasons, which the government fails to address. I would encourage the member to go and read the CPTPP.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:20 p.m.

NDP

Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC

Mr. Speaker, let us not beat around the bush. This agreement is basically a beautifully written corporate rights document, allowing them to ship capital to all of these different countries, and it is going to leave Canadian workers in the lurch.

What I want to hear from my hon. colleague is the incredible imbalance that exists between corporate rights and labour rights. From my understanding, corporations were given a beautiful tribunal in which to settle their scores with local governments that dare to legislate in the public interest. However, if labour leaders have a complaint, they have to prove that complaint had an impact on trade before it even comes into effect. If the murder of a labour leader for fighting for human rights in other countries does not have an impact on trade, it will not kick in under this.

I wonder if my colleague could expand on that and on the complete imbalance and negligence of the Liberal government to stand up for workers around the world.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:20 p.m.

NDP

Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for working very hard on the agricultural file and making sure that farmers' voices are heard in the House, because certainly we have folks on both sides of the aisle who, with the CPTPP, are happy to throw our farmers under the bus. Even the compensation to farmers that originally existed under the Conservatives has completely evaporated under the Liberal government. It is gone. There is nothing for the market share that has been opened. I thank him for that work.

What he is saying is completely factual. We are already tariff-free with 97% of the CPTPP countries we have signed on with. This deal is not about trade. This deal is about enshrining rights that go against our own sovereignty in our country through ISDS, which the Prime Minister admitted in the House today is a regressive provision that needs to be removed. Why then, less than an hour after the Prime Minister left the House today, are the Liberals signing on to an agreement that includes this regressive provision?

Human rights, which my colleague mentioned, is another important issue that we can address effectively in trade deals. This Liberal government and the Conservative one before it failed to do even that basic minimum to enshrine human rights, and that is a shame.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:25 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Speaker, today I am presenting amendments to Bill C-79. The Green Party is naturally opposed to agreements that are designed to protect the rights of investors and big foreign corporations.

On that, I am proud to say that we are the only party in the House that has consistently and always opposed investor-state dispute resolution agreements in every trade deal that has come through here.

I want to thank the hon. member for Essex for her work on this as well. It is very clear that the New Democratic Party does oppose investor-state agreements in the context of the CPTPP. In that, we were only joined by the Bloc Québécois today in objecting to shortening the debate. Even though the NDP, the third party in this place, was prepared to bend and allow a shortened debate, its amendment, which was rejected in this place, would have allowed debate that went for five hours as opposed to being shortened to almost no hours. It was amazing to me that the compromise position of the NDP was not accepted and that the large parties in this place, the Liberals and Conservatives, were all too quick to rush this bill to conclusion.

The trans-Pacific partnership, which we are entering into in this rushed fashion, has been refashioned as the comprehensive and progressive trans-Pacific partnership agreement, but it is very clear that it is not progressive, and it may not even be comprehensive.

I want to focus initially, as others have in this place, on what we celebrate, and I do want to be clear that I celebrate the achievements that were just achieved in replacing NAFTA with what has now been rebranded, Trump style, the USMCA. However, parts of the USMCA remain troubling. I should mention what they are. There is the erosion of supply management that protects not only our dairy farmers but other protected agricultural sectors. It presents a threat to human health in Canada if dairy products contaminated with bovine growth hormone are allowed to enter our marketplace. We remain concerned about the USMCA giving longer patent protection to pharmaceutical companies, thus driving up drug costs. We remain concerned about other sectors that are impacted by the new USMCA. However, we are relieved that the auto sector will survive this. We are relieved that many other sectors have not been negatively impacted as much as Trump had threatened.

The big good news out of the USMCA is what the Prime Minister mentioned earlier today, which happens, ironically, to be the subject matter of the amendments I argue in this place today. What the Prime Minister celebrated today, and I could not be more overjoyed, and “overjoyed” is the word to use, was the end of chapter 11 in NAFTA.

Chapter 11 was the world's first investor-state dispute mechanism. It was the debut of a concept that is so inherently anti-democratic that it is astonishing how it has managed to creep into nearly every trade agreement Canada has signed since. Now, essentially, the grandfather of all investor-state dispute resolutions is gone, but the illegitimate progeny continue to contaminate democracies around the world.

I will never forget how Steve Schreibman, a noted trade lawyer in Canada, described ISDS when he was fighting for intervenor status on behalf of Sierra Club Canada in one of the many chapter 11 cases that we ultimately lost. It was the one brought by S.D. Myers of Ohio, which claimed, believe it or not, that it was an investor in Canada, although it had never actually built anything here. It claimed that its rights had been infringed, because Canada banned the export of PCB-contaminated waste. We lost that case. Members may not believe it, but at the time an investor-state dispute resolution panel ruled that Canada had violated chapter 11 by banning the export of PCB-contaminated waste to the U.S., it was illegal under U.S. law to allow its importation. In this area of trade law, the only precedent to help figure it out is to reread Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, because none of it has ever made any sense.

I was about to quote Steven Schreibman in that case. He said that chapter 11 investor state dispute mechanisms are “fundamentally corrosive of democracy”.

Here we are in this place celebrating today, and I do celebrate. I want to thank, on the record, the Minister of Global Affairs for her extraordinary work in bringing through a concluded agreement with an administration as incoherent and unpredictable as the one that currently occupies the White House. Regardless of political stripe, Canadians should celebrate that. We have much more in common as Canadians than differences with those trying to score political points against the government for managing to navigate anything in the topsy-turvy world one encounters when dealing with the President of the United States.

We celebrate this big achievement that chapter 11 of NAFTA is gone. Why, then, are we inserting chapter 9 in the CPTPP, which does the same thing, but with different countries? With the advent of CPTPP, if we pass Bill C-79 as it is without accepting my amendment, we will now be subject to the same corporate rule, where foreign corporations from Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico—we already had a Mexico ISDS under NAFTA—New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam have superior rights to domestic corporations.

There is another truth that must be told about these agreements, because, really, Canada is not at risk from TPP investor-dispute mechanisms from Chile, Mexico or Vietnam. I say that because there is a pattern. Here is the pattern, which we know from hundreds of cases reviewed by two major European Union think tanks, the Corporate Europe Observatory and the Transnational Institute. They looked at hundreds of these cases that allow foreign corporations to sue domestic governments. Was there a pattern? Do governments tend to win? Do corporations tend to win? That is not the pattern one finds, but there is a pattern: the larger economic power always wins.

When Philip Morris, a U.S. corporation, decided to sue Uruguay because it dared to put health warnings on cigarette labels, Uruguay was going to lose, and it did. When it is a U.S. corporation, such as Ethyl Corporation, SDMyers, AbitibiBowater or Bilcon, the very worst case, the U.S. corporation will win and Canada will lose.

Canadian corporations, on the other hand, trying to sue in the U.S. nearly always lose, because we are a smaller economic power. That is why it is extraordinary that it was the U.S. that wanted to remove this agreement and Canada that used it. I hope we were using it the whole time, holding it back knowing it was a bargaining chip we were prepared to play, but we should never have fought to hang on to chapter 11 of NAFTA. It is so deeply offensive.

Here is the evidence. “Profiting from injustice” is the name of the study, and the subtitle is “How law firms, arbitrators and financiers are fuelling an investment arbitration boom” and gaining enormously financially. It is basically, like the words used earlier in this place in a different context, ambulance chasing. Basically, law firms, arbitrators, financiers and individual lawyers have made out like bandits on chapter 11 cases and other ISDA cases. The arbitrators are for-hire judges. There is no court. They are individual lawyers who are arbitrators, who, in the same firms, often represent corporations suing countries. There is no justification for leaving this in the CPTPP.

We have another precedent besides removing it from NAFTA, and that is that in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the EU, individual countries have opted out of ISDS while still joining in the overall trade deal.

Investor-state dispute resolutions are anti-democratic. They have nothing to do with trade and everything to do with transferring democratic rights to corporations. We should pass my amendment, please, and take ISDS out of the CPTPP.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:35 p.m.

Winnipeg North Manitoba

Liberal

Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Mr. Speaker, I can appreciate that the leader of the Green Party has been consistent, along with the New Democrats, on trade and trade agreements. Both parties just do not feel that trade agreements are something we should be moving forward on.

I want to give a specific example of why an agreement of this nature is a great benefit. It is all about enabling communities and businesses to gain access to markets. The leader might recall a company called HyLife, which is in rural Manitoba. It is a pork-processing plant. It exports, I believe, 90% to 95% of its product out of the province of Manitoba to Japan, I believe. Without those exports, that company would not exist. That company provides literally hundreds of jobs in the small but beautiful and dynamic community of Neepawa. It provides opportunities for many farmers and others.

Canada is a trading nation. One of the ways we can have those good-quality middle-class jobs is by allowing more trade to occur. Countries around the world recognize that if they want to advance the middle class and advance trade, what they need to do is secure those markets. That is what this bill would do.

I would ask the leader of the Green Party to maybe reconsider and recognize that there are significant benefits too.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:35 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Winnipeg North will know that in my speech, I focused on the investor-state dispute mechanisms, which have nothing to do with expanding markets, access to markets or trade.

However, since he raises the example of hog barns in Manitoba, I want to remind him that farmers in Manitoba did not want massive hog farms. In town after town, they tried to protest them. The former government of Gary Doer suspended the right of municipalities to say no to mega-farms for hogs. The result is the contamination of Lake Winnipeg and significant toxic eutrophication because liquid hog waste has contaminated it.

These issues are complex. The small family farms created more jobs and more healthy ecosystems for Manitobans than massive hog barns, which leave the pollution behind for the people of Manitoba, while shipping the product out.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:35 p.m.

NDP

Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. It is easy to see why she is focusing on a specific amendment that she feels is valuable and worth defending. Of course, the royal Liberal bulldozer paid her no heed.

I would like to know the member's reaction. I am not an expert in international trade, but I hear that in the U.S., both major parties in the legislature get to participate, since they get updates on the proceedings and discussions on admittedly complex treaties. By contrast, we here in Canada are dependent on the members across the aisle.

I would like to hear the member's thoughts on that.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:40 p.m.

Green

Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Longueuil—Saint-Hubert for his question. It is sort of funny, but I want to share a story that comes from Robert Reich, a former Clinton cabinet secretary. He said that not one member of the U.S. Congress read the NAFTA document before the vote.

One really important thing I want to point out is that the MPs here and the members of Congress in the United States are not comfortable with the documents and have no time to read them. The situation is the same in both countries, in Canada's Parliament and in the U.S. Congress. Now we do not even have enough time for debate. However, it is very rare to find even one person who has made the effort to do some real research on the issues.

I personally have been working hard for years to oppose agreements that favour foreign corporations and have the potential to harm our democracy.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

Order. It is my duty pursuant to Standing Order 38 to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Vancouver East, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship; the hon. member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue, Veterans; and the hon. member for Essex, International Trade.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:40 p.m.

Omar Alghabra Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade Diversification, Lib.

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak once again to the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership, CPTPP, and the benefits to Canadians from coast to coast to coast and across all sectors of our economy.

As my hon. colleagues have noted, the need for Canada to diversify our trade and investment has never been stronger. Trade has long been an engine that drives our economy, and we have a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on new markets, which this government is opening up across the board. Canadian jobs and prosperity depend heavily on our connectivity with other countries around the world. This is why our government has committed to expanding Canada's access to markets beyond North America.

CETA has opened up markets across the Atlantic Ocean in Europe and the CPTPP would provide us with incredible new opportunities throughout Asia and the Pacific. We are also engaged in ongoing free trade agreement negotiations with the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur as well as exploratory discussions with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The CPTPP would be a cornerstone of Canada's ongoing diversification agenda.

Combined, the 11 CPTPP members represent a total of 495 million consumers and 13.5% of global GDP. Canada's exports to our CPTPP partners totalled nearly $27 billion in 2017. The CPTPP would provide Canadian companies, large or small, with a tremendous opportunity to continue to expand their business in Asia. Implementing and ratifying the CPTPP would strengthen our existing FTA partnerships with Chile, Mexico and Peru, and provide preferential access to seven new markets: Australia, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. Once this agreement enters into force, and we are moving swiftly to that end, Canada will have 14 trade agreements that provide preferential access to 51 different countries. Combined, these represent nearly 1.5 billion consumers and over 60% of the global economy. Estimates project that the CPTPP would boost Canada's economy over the long term, and that growth will be driven by increased exports of goods and services and increased investment into Canada.

This means more jobs and more prosperity for hard-working Canadians and their families. The CPTPP would deliver 10 new markets on a level playing field so more Canadian businesses can expand their customer base and increase their profit margins. That is what happens when tariffs come down and access is open. Most of these tariffs, 86%, in fact, would be eliminated immediately upon the entering into force of the agreement, so that our exporters can take advantage of new business opportunities in CPTPP markets right away.

The CPTPP would also establish mechanisms to address non-tariff barriers such as technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Our exporters often cite non-tariff barriers as one of the most significant challenges when seeking to gain entry into a new market. In this regard, the CPTPP would help our exporters gain preferential access to large and fast-growing markets in Asia by establishing rules on these barriers to trade, creating a more predictable and transparent trading environment.

As a result of the CPTPP, Canadian exporters would be able to level the playing field with their competitors who currently enjoy preferential access to markets like Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam. Likewise, the CPTPP would allow companies to gain a competitive edge over those from countries that do not have the same level of access. The agreement would not just help Canadian companies export to Asia, but also help them establish customer relationships, networks and other joint partnerships, which are essential to doing business in the region.

This will offer Canada the opportunity to further integrate with Asia's regional and globally connected supply chains. It is in these supply chains where we anticipate the potential for remarkable growth.

Canada will also be at an advantage to export more agriculture and agri-food, fish and seafood, industrial machinery and everything in between. Quality made-in-Canada goods are in demand for a rapidly rising middle class throughout the region and there is no country better placed to provide those goods than Canada.

New markets for our agriculture and agri-food products mean more opportunities for Canadians to export fruit from British Columbia, beef from Alberta, wheat from Saskatchewan, pork from Manitoba, icewine from Ontario, maple syrup from Quebec, blueberries from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and potato products from Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, just to name a few.

Opening up new markets for our fish and seafood industry means more opportunities for salmon, halibut, lobster, clams, mussels and snow crab, supporting close to 76,000 Canadian jobs based mostly in rural and coastal regions from coast to coast to coast.

Opening up new markets means opportunities for Canadians employed in the diverse and productive resources and manufacturing sectors from across the country, such as aerospace, chemicals, cosmetics, industrial machinery, medical devices, information and communications technologies, metals and minerals, pharmaceuticals and plastics.

The benefits of the CPTPP do not stop there.

The agreement will also provide Canadian companies, service providers and investors alike with transparency, predictability and certainty in their access to CPTPP markets through its dedicated chapters covering trade in services and investment.

The CPTPP will provide preferential access for Canada's service providers across a broad range of sectors, including legal, architectural, engineering, transportation, environmental, education and financial services.

This access will be further supported by what is called a “ratchet mechanism”, which locks in the level of market access provided to Canadian service providers under the CPTPP.

This, combined with provisions on national treatment and most favoured nation treatment, means that Canada's access to CPTPP service markets can only improve over time as our partners implement policies towards greater liberalization, including when they complete FTA negotiations with other countries around the world.

I would like to talk about some of the more progressive elements of the CPTPP that support our government's commitment to ensuring that the benefits of trade are widely shared. I want to talk about these because these issues have been at the heart of pushback on trade.

On labour rights for example, the CPTPP includes a dedicated chapter that enhances workers' rights and ensures that economic development does not come at their expense. It also encourages parties to promote equality and the elimination of discrimination against women in the workplace.

When we truly level the playing field, we give more people the confidence to compete and succeed and the reassurance that comes from knowing the government has their backs.

Canadians recognize there is no better time for our economy than now to diversify our markets. Our government is committed to expanding market access for our businesses, for our workers and ensuring that we, at the same time, uphold values that Canadians care deeply about.

It is really important that the House pass this legislation as quickly as possible. I am willing to work with my Senate colleagues and our government is ready to assist them in passing the bill.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:50 p.m.

NDP

Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON

Mr. Speaker, I have never heard such an impassioned plea for jobs to leave our country. What we heard from the parliamentary secretary is that he approves of the 58,000 jobs that are going to leave our country under the signing of this and not only approves of it, but wants us to speed it up, which Liberals and Conservatives have joined hands to do today so that they can further harm our auto sector, our farmers and dairy farmers, our supply-managed farmers.

I do not think it is something to be incredibly proud of today. The member mentioned labour. Who is opposed to this deal and thinks it is bad for working people? The Canadian Labour Congress, Unifor, United Steel Workers, CUPE, UFCW, and I could go on and on. Working people are not fooled by flowery speeches in the House that say something is good for working people. The proof is in the pudding and it is not in here.

I would also like to say that there is broad access he mentioned for workers to come to our country and that is true. In chapter 12, we have offered that broad access and for the first time our building trades are now under threat officially in a trade agreement, which we heard from coast to coast to coast not to sign onto, that it was a dangerous provision.

I would also like to talk about auto workers because while we have some provisions in the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada deal that auto is quite happy with, they are very unhappy with the CPTPP. When the member talks about chains being supported, what is going to be harmed are auto supply chains.

I have a specific question for the parliamentary secretary and I hope it will not be talking points coming back at me because it will be disrespectful to auto workers. How will the auto side letter in the CPTPP be good for Canada's auto sector?

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:50 p.m.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade Diversification, Lib.

Omar Alghabra

Mr. Speaker, I know that Canadians are not surprised when they see the NDP oppose a trade deal. If you go back to the 1990s talking point that the NDP had, they opposed NAFTA and said that millions of jobs would be lost. Now Canadians know—

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:50 p.m.

NDP

Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON

That means you can't answer my question.

Jobs were lost. Unbelievable.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

I want to remind the hon. members that the rules, the last time I read them, are that you ask a question and you wait for an answer. You do not ask a question and interrupt the question.

Now that I see everyone has calmed down, I will let the hon. parliamentary secretary proceed.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:50 p.m.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade Diversification, Lib.

Omar Alghabra

Mr. Speaker, I respect my hon. colleague's opinion. I am just saying that Canadians are not surprised that the NDP is once again opposing a trade deal and once again fearmongering and misleading Canadians by saying that thousands of jobs will be lost. However, I do respect where the member is coming from and we have a disagreement. We disagree that Canada's economy depends on trade and free trade is good for Canada's economy and good for workers.

I was present at committee when the member asked officials about the side letter within this agreement that Canada was able to secure. She asked whether the letters are binding or not. She asked about labour rights and about non-tariff barriers. Officials who are not political assured her that these side letters are enforceable.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON

Mr. Speaker, I particularly liked to see how the parliamentary secretary highlighted the fact that Canada is a trading nation and that we have so many trading partners. Canada is the only country with free trade agreements with every country in the G7 because we respect and appreciate the fact that trade relationships are important.

Given the climate and the political environment that exist today, I am wondering if the parliamentary secretary can comment on how important it is to make sure that we continue to diversify our trading relationships so that we have many different trading partners as opposed to an approach where we would just be doing our primary trading with one partner.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade Diversification, Lib.

Omar Alghabra

Mr. Speaker, my colleague is right and Canadians know that Canada is a trading nation. Millions of jobs depend on our ability to trade with other nations. We in Canada recognize today more than ever that it is really important to not depend solely on one customer for our goods and services. Therefore, Canadians support the idea of opening up access to new markets.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today on behalf of my constituents in the great riding of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke to be part of the debate ushering in a cornerstone of the legacy of prime minister Stephen Harper. I will start by recognizing the hard work over the past decade by our world-class trade negotiators and Prime Minister Harper, whose vision led this Parliament to pass a record number of free trade agreements.

The path to reaching the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership began under the previous Conservative government. We would not be here today were it not for the hard work and heavy lifting by Canada's longest serving and, easily arguable, best minister of international trade in decades, the hon. member for Abbotsford. Canada's consumers, entrepreneurs, farmers, miners and manufacturers will benefit under this agreement, thanks to the hard work of the member for Abbotsford.

For my constituents who faithfully follow the speeches in Parliament and anyone else watching at home, it is necessary to explain the importance of trade and what this trade agreement is all about. Trade agreements are important because one out of every five Canadian jobs depends on international trade, and these essential trading relationships help generate 60% of our nation's wealth as measured by gross domestic product.

The CPTPP is a comprehensive agreement for a trans-Pacific trade partnership. It is the current version to the trade agreement with countries of the Pacific Rim signed by the previous Conservative government. It includes 11 countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. It was signed in March of this year and after the Prime Minister's failures on the North American Free Trade Agreement, there now seems to be some attention being paid to trade agreements, which has been lacking by the government.

The sense of urgency to pass Bill C-79 now and to ratify the CPTPP may be a result of concessions by the Liberal Party to give a foreign country, in this case the United States, veto power over whom Canada can sign a trade agreement with. Vietnam, one of the signatories to the CPTPP, is considered a non-market economy. The Liberals, under the terms of the botched NAFTA renegotiation, surrendered Canadian sovereignty.

As a result, the United States could exercise the power given to them by the Liberal Party and veto our participation in the CPTPP because of the presence of Vietnam in the agreement. It did not have to be this way. If the current government had taken seriously the need to be proactive in seeking out new markets for Canadian products, this agreement, which was handed to the current government ready to go, would be in place now and we would not have to have this debate so late in the game.

Hopefully, after the botched negotiations with the Americans over NAFTA, the Conservative Party, Canada's government in waiting, will help this bumbling government get the job done with the trade agreement it handed to them ready to be signed. CPTPP reduces tariffs in countries representing 13% of the global economy, or a total of $10 trillion. The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated that the Pacific Rim trade agreement version signed by the previous Conservative government would boost Canadian income by over $20 billion over the next decade.

The agreement comes into force 60 days after at least six signatory countries ratify it and the deadline to ratify it is February of 2019. After that, we lose our first-mover advantage, the way Canada lost out when we came on board after the U.S. and Mexico signed a trade agreement to replace NAFTA. Canada will have to play catch-up with the other signatory countries if we continue to delay.

Canadians are, indeed, fortunate for all of the heavy lifting done by the previous Conservative government on this trade agreement. Many Canadians I spoke to in the last several months were convinced that the hidden Liberal agenda on NAFTA was aimed at failing. The decision by the Liberal Party to sell out Canadian agricultural producers, in this case dairy farmers, by failing to protect farmers, consumers and taxpayers during trade negotiations with our largest trading partner is only more bad news for Canadians already suffering from huge debt and huge taxation levels.

The sell-out was inevitable, considering how badly the Canadian-American relationship has been mismanaged. The Liberal Party responded to the election pledge by the U.S. President to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement with a $20 million gift to the Clinton Foundation. Yes, that is the same U.S. political presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, who was tapped to participate in the controversial pay-to-play cash for access fundraisers favoured by the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party put partisan interests above the good of Canada.

Canadian control of Canada's food supply and the efficient use of resources to deliver nutritious high-quality products from the farm gate to the consumer's kitchen table is at the core of Canada's supply management system. Farmers have not recovered from the last attack on their livelihoods, made last summer when the Liberal finance minister started to change the tax laws to make it easier for people to lose their family farm to foreigners and corporations than it was to pass the family farm on to the next generation. While Conservatives support the family farm as the heart of rural life, food security, just like border security, is a low priority for the selfie Prime Minister, who is obsessed with himself.

The Conservatives have negotiated dozens of trade deals without losing supply management. We have never been in such a weak negotiating position where supply management could be used a barrier to a trade deal. If Canadian food security were a sticking point to an agreement, that is an indictment of the current government and the extraordinarily weak position it has left Canada in. Hundreds of thousands of Canadian jobs and the overall health of our country depend on trade. This is why Canadians are so fortunate to have had this trade agreement we are discussing today negotiated by our previous Conservative government.

A Conservative government would never have been so disrespectful of someone like the political leader of our largest trading partner, whose good will so many Canadian jobs depend upon. The United States is Canada's most important trading partner. Twenty per cent of Canada's GDP is tied to our commercial relationship with the United States, and over 74% of Canadian exports go to the United States. The member for University—Rosedale should have known better than to appear, in the middle of sensitive trade negotiations, on a panel with extremists that featured a video slandering the U.S. president. As the global affairs minister, she should have been instructed that the fine art of diplomacy does not tolerate amateurs.

The livelihoods of families are at stake. Canadians cannot afford a government that puts its own political interests ahead of the country's economy and Canadian jobs. Conservatives believe in clean air, low taxes and good jobs and a healthy economy. A clean environment and well-paying jobs are only possible when people are treated with respect. The gains Canadians made from the hard work of our previous Conservative government to cut taxes for all Canadians and successfully negotiate favourable new trade deals are being undone by the Liberal spending government. In its zeal to undo our Conservative legacy on justice for victims, funding for our military, and cutting taxes for low-income Canadians first and foremost, the government ignored trade. Only now has the Liberal Party seen the wisdom in the Conservative policy of pursuing multiple trade agreements.

The Liberals opposed Conservative cuts to the GST and HST and now propose a bogus carbon tax, which is nothing more than an HST on steroids. A tax is a tax is a tax, and excessive taxation kills Canadian jobs. Conservative trade policy creates jobs.

With the CPTPP, the current government has embraced our Conservative legacy on trade, and we can be thankful that we are passing CPTPP now because the economic future of Canada does not look good under this Liberal spending government. The regressive left has never believed in free trade.

Auto workers and pensioners in places like Windsor and St. Catharines tell me that they are in mortal fear of losing their jobs and any hope of a comfortable retirement when the carbon tax hits their households.

Our Conservative government pursued trade deals among our allies and developing democracies with so much energy because of our vision for Canada and the confidence Conservatives have in Canadians.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

5:05 p.m.

Liberal

Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON

Mr. Speaker, I want to start by thanking the member for Abbotsford for his work on this. I think it is fair to say that this process started under the former government. The Liberal government took over that process.

Together, through the work of both parties, we were able to produce a good result for Canadians at the end of the day. There is nothing wrong, every once in a while, with saying that we agree on something, that we are supportive of each other and that we are working for the same goal.

Towards the beginning of the hon. member's speech, she said that we are trying to ram this through the House, yet moments ago the member just voted in favour of a time allocation motion on this. How can the member say that the government is trying to ram it through the House when she was supportive of a time allocation motion to force a vote on this?

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

5:05 p.m.

Conservative

Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON

Mr. Speaker, just because the government has been so truant in getting this bill forward does not mean that we are going to roll it through without serious debate and without letting Canadians know what it is all about.

Hopefully, it will be passed before the failure of the new agreement with the U.S. and Mexico comes to pass, and before the threat of this CPTPP deal going by the wayside as a consequence of it is a reality.

Motions in amendmentComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Implementation ActGovernment Orders

5:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Assistant Deputy Speaker Liberal Anthony Rota

The hon. member for Longueuil—Saint-Hubert is rising to speak, but I cannot recognize him because he violated the rules. I am sorry. I think he will be allowed to speak in the House again in a few days.

The hon. member for Bow River.